The ability to switch magnets between two stable bit states is the main principle of modern data storage technology. Controlling the magnetic state of media with the lowest possible dissipations and simultaneously at the fastest possible time‐scale is a new and great challenge in fundamental and applied magnetism. A femtosecond laser pulse is one of the shortest stimuli in contemporary condensed matter physics. Exciting magnets on a timescale much faster than characteristic times of atomic, orbital and spin motion can steer magnetization dynamics along yet unexplored non-thermodynamic routes. In my talk I would like to discuss these routes for the cases of magnetic dielectrics [1‐3] and propose ways to design a medium for ultrafast and cold opto‐magnetic recording.